The US Department of Energy's regional economic legacy: spatial dimensions of a half century of dependency

Abstract

Using an interregional economic simulation model, a comparative analysis was made of the economic impacts of making substantial changes in funding of the US Department of Energy's (DOEs) environmental management, defense, and science and energy research programs. Focusing on the DOEs major facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, as well as Washington, DC and the rest of the US, striking regional economic impacts occur when funds are shifted among the major programs and when the DOE program as a whole is substantially cut. The DOE-centered regions in Ohio and Colorado are buffered by their economic size and large economic multiplier capacity. At the opposite pole are the sites in South Carolina, Washington, and Texas, which are smaller and are less able to convert DOE investments into new jobs. These less populated and more economically dependent sites suffer badly as a result of shifts in DOE funding priorities and, as we show, constitute the core of the DOEs economic legacy.